Nebraska is a trauma-based training to help Native American students. In Arizona, it is an effort to expand mental health services in existing schools. This program will increase the number of mental health providers in the Texas region, where suicide rates are high.
These are one of the school’s mental health programs that could be found in the chopping block, thanks to the Department of Education’s funding cuts.
Reducing or losing these programs is particularly important for rural school districts where mental health resources are scarce and require more than urban hubs.
There are many parts of the country Mental health care “Desert”. If schools in these communities don’t provide this kind of support, children there won’t be able to get it elsewhere, says David M. Ardley, interim executive director of the National Association of Rural Education.
“Many mental health services that existed in rural locations had already disappeared thanks to business models. [that] It didn’t make sense. Or they disappeared because federal money went somewhere else,” he says.
Cut during difficult times
With a letter It was sent last weekMinistry of Education officials said the grant will end at the end of the funding cycle unless the recipient files an appeal. This move is widely recognized by the Trump administration Take the problem The fact that many of the grant proposals mentioned increased diversity among mental health professionals.
Approximately $1 billion infusion of funding to K-12 school mental health services and care providers began in 2022. Unprecedented recommendations That primary care doctor will screen all children over the age of 8 for anxiety.
The Ministry of Education’s decision to cut the flow of mental health grants has echoed across the country, but they may strike rural schools, especially.
Ardley speculates that some rural areas will have to suspend programs supported through federal grants.
He points out that the timing of the Department of Education’s decision puts the district in a difficult position. The district has been negotiating services for the upcoming fiscal year or signing a contract for services.
“Specific agreements have already been achieved,” says Ardrey. “So who is owed to pay it? If you do, who will be stuck with the bill? And the district is the district that is located in the middle of this.”
Rare resources
Districts across the country already deal with a shortage of school psychologists and other licensed mental health professionals eligible to work in kindergarten to high school. Training takes years and there are too few people entering the field each year.
In Nevada, for example, an analysis from 2023 found that the state’s prep program for mental health professionals graduates only 12 people each year amid a shortage of nearly 2,900 school mental health professionals.
The grant program, which is being cut by the Department of Education, was created to help schools and universities increase the number of licensed mental health workers.
For example, Arizona was awarded the Cochese Educational Services Agency. $2.7 million five-year grant To increase the number of mental health providers in rural areas: “With only 38 schools and 12 providers for 9,656 students, there are inadequate staffing levels and many students are suffering quietly.”
Meanwhile, Winnebago Public Schools and UmoⁿHoⁿNation Public Schools in Nebraska received nearly $1 million in 2024, increasing mental health services for Native American students.
Even with a wealth of qualified care providers, budgets are tight and rural schools often have to choose whether to hire a counselor or other type of staff member.
“If you have a counselor, is there someone who is really a mental health type, or someone who supports students in class schedules and college preparation?” Ardley says. “So, in many cases, districts need to combine workloads with other managed functions.”
Rural schools face other challenges when attracting mental health professionals. The shortage of employees, teachers, bus drivers, counselors and social workers will be exacerbated by fewer groups.
“And the reality of that lies in our rural community, there’s a housing shortage,” Ardley says. “So, if you’re trying to hire new teachers and you really want them to live in your community, it’s hard to not have access to really good housing and high quality housing.”
He says that rural areas have plans to address these potential losses in federal funds, but for now it is likely to be added to the long-term list of tasks that will continue to run the school.
“I don’t make any sense in a bit of a way, but I think there’s a lot of spaghetti on the wall right now because it’s affecting our schools. “No matter what’s going on at the federal level in the federal funding stream, our schools are open every day and people are going to work every day.”
